Online shopping in the U.S. generates $279 billion in returns! Sellers generally have an extremely high return rate

In the past two days, foreign media reported that the amount of returns for online shopping in the United States this year will reach 279.03 billion US dollars, an increase of 8.4% over last year, and this total return amount is more than twice that before the epidemic in 2019. The total return amount in 2019 was about 110 billion US dollars.

According to the survey, there are two main reasons why returns have intensified this year. First, inflation has significantly pushed up commodity prices, which means that the return amount will also increase for the same number of goods returned.

Second, under tight economic conditions, many shoppers will choose to buy multiple items they need, and return the less needed products after trying them. Although this group of people has existed before, it has become more common this year. According to data, at least 63% of shoppers have experienced this situation when shopping this year.

In this year's peak season data, a large number of returned orders caused sellers to lose an average of 21% of their profits. However, it is difficult for sellers to reduce losses by setting return shipping fees, because more than 54% of American consumers will not shop in stores that charge return fees.

The return process and free returns are key factors that influence online shopping transactions. They can bring competitive advantages to sellers and retailers, but the high return rates have seriously affected profits. 83% of sellers have the problem of excessively high return rates.

A proven method to reduce the return rate is to regularly analyze the reasons that prompt shoppers to return products. This can help consumers understand the products they want to buy before placing an order. Adequate knowledge will lead to reasonable expectations, thereby reducing the probability of returning products because the products do not meet expectations. Many sellers are forced to charge for returns to ensure profit margins.

This year, Amazon's policy continues to extend the peak season return period. According to agency predictions, around Christmas this year may become the peak return day in the United States this year.

The agency's data shows that the return rate after the Christmas season this year will surge by more than 70% compared to the same period last year , so the expected profits of e-commerce sellers may be affected to a certain extent. Although Amazon and other platforms have adopted a more relaxed return policy this year, for example, Amazon has postponed the return period for holiday orders from October to January. However, this relaxed policy is bound to put more pressure on logistics, and the current offline distribution situation in the United States is not optimistic. This pressure may lead to a vicious cycle. According to last year's situation, the return wave will continue until early January.